


Steven's new home

by Incuria



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Feels, Greg just wants his son, lots of feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 20:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4451807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incuria/pseuds/Incuria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short piece about Steven coming to live with the Crystal Gems.  Greg was not informed and it was a bit of a surprise for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steven's new home

Living in the back of a van for the last few years has been cramped, but doable, even after he put on the mandatory spare tire gut that comes with parenthood. Speaking of cramped spaces, Greg really should clean the back of the van. He’s sitting in the front now, holding his breath and looking back into the piles of (mostly clean) clothes and empty pizza boxes. His one and only son is in there somewhere.

“Hmmmm, where could little Stevie be?” He sing-songs, eyes roving over a slightly taller mound of old ‘Mr. Universe’ t-shirts. That seems like a good bet, his mattress is somewhere under there and he’s fairly certain those t-shirts had been unearthed from somewhere else the last time he saw them. He shifts his weight in the opposite direction, eyes glued on the pile, faking the kid out. “Could he beeeee…” he trails off, breath going still in his lungs once again. There’s a tiny little giggle from beneath a nearby pile, muffled through layers of jeans and cardboard boxes. Bingo. “Over here!?” He knocks the top few boxes to the floor to one side and there’s that mop of dark curled hair.

A little face looks out at him from near the bottom of the pile. The kid was getting smart, he made a dummy pile that had Greg going for a few moments, but it’s not really _that_ hard to outsmart a 5 year old. Said little boy gives that wide gap-toothed grin that’s utterly Steven and just a little bit Rose and he fairly explodes from the pile, sending t-shirt shrapnel everywhere.

“You FOUND me!” he exclaims, like there was any doubt about this fact. Greg grins and grabs the boy around the waist, tossing him up as high as the van roof will allow. Steven laughs, high and bright and happy. He hopes his son never loses that wonder, that sense of fun.

“Yeah, I found you alright. Now what to _do_ with you?” Greg catches him around the waist and pulls him to his chest, cuddling at him. Steven puts up with that for roughly 5 seconds before he starts squirming again to get loose. “What do you think little man? What should we do next?”

“I wanna go see the Gems!” Greg’s stomach tightens up a little. The Crystal Gems. They’re on… sort of odd terms since Rose gave up her form for Steven. On a certain level he didn’t think he’d really understood what she meant when she said she’d have to ‘give up her form’ to bring Steven into the world. He’d seen Amethyst poof into her gem once and roughly half an hour later she’d popped back out, sporting a wicked new hair-do. He’d sort of been holding out hope that something similar might happen that time, that he’d have a son and mystically still have a wife as well. Despite all the planning and the talks it was a shock to everyone when Rose…

At the moment he thinks the Gems are on a mission…or something. They’re not on the best of speaking terms, and it’s been a few weeks since he’s seen hide or tail of them.

“I dunno buddy, they’re pretty busy these days.” Steven does that thing where his eyes get _huge_ and start to fill up with tears and Greg scrambles to fix it. “But don’t worry! They’ll be back soon! And uh… I’m sure they’ll bring you back a present!” As soon as he says it he wishes he hadn’t, it’s a very human thought to bring things back from a trip and he doubts the Gems will have bothered. He’d like to be able to give them a call and ask them to bring Steven something back, but it’s not like they have crystal cell phones or anything. He’ll pick something up himself and give it to one of them to give to Steven, crisis averted.

For the moment it seems to work, Steven is back to smiling and rolling around in the piles of clothes in the back of his van. A familiar rumble starts up in his stomach and he starts to crawl into the back along with Steven, rooting through the various piles till he finds his insulated lunch box. It holds a half carton of eggs, two bottles of Aquafina, and a packet of pancake mix (just add water).

“Hey buddy, have you seen the waffle iron?” There’s one in here somewhere, with a special adapter that will attach to little plug in the front of the van. He unearths the extension cord and jams the adapter into the plug, then starts looking for the waffle iron again. A shirt with Steven’s hair poking out of the arm crawls toward him, at the last moment his son’s arm protrudes from the neck hole, holding the fabled waffle iron aloft. He can’t help but laugh, taking the thing and clearing a spot on the floor for it to sit so he can cook without burning the van down.

While the iron warms up he rips open a packet of pancake mix and cracks open the water bottle, pouring both into a nearby Ziploc baggie. “Here Stu-ball, shake this up for me?” He hands the boy the little baggie while he watches the waffle iron heating up. The boy pops out of yet another pile to take the baggie, holding it in one pudgy fist and shaking it hard and fast. Greg laughs. He should probably tell him to be softer with it so the bag doesn’t rip open and make a mess, but Steven seems to be having so much fun he can’t bring himself to say anything. “Alright, I think that’s enough, don’t you?” Steven hands the bag back over and it’s sort of frothy, but that’s fine. He’ll just toast the waffles a little more.

He makes two thick, fluffy waffles that go straight onto a double layer of paper towel, then cracks an egg into the waffle maker and cooks one for each of them and lays it over the top of the waffle.

Steven, like most 5 year olds, sort of picks at his food, setting it down often to wander around the van or continue some strange story in a high pitched voice that Greg can never really separate reality from childish imagination. Currently Steven is talking about Amethyst turning into a bat and flying around the beach to torment Pearl. That absolutely sounds like a thing that could happen in their strange, magic-laden lives; though now he’s adding that Garnet came in and fought the other gems as a giant shoe, and that doesn’t sound like her… He sighs heavily and rubs at his temples. Maybe things wouldn’t be so hard if Rose were still here.

She had a way of bringing Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst together with just a few words; without her here they lack focus, purpose. Even their missions are suffering, more and more monsters making their way into the city and terrorizing everyone. They need someone to rally them, but he has no idea of how to help them with that or even more if it’s any of his business. Hell, the only reason he even knows any of them is because of Rose, and now she’s gone.

“Daddy?” asks a small voice. Greg blinks, coming out of his reverie slowly and finally focusing on his kid. “Your egg.” Greg looks down. His egg had fallen off of his waffle and onto his lap, yolk broken and oozing over his ankles. He lets out a rather animated yelp and Steven laughs as he scrambles to find something to clean up the mess in his lap.

* * *

Steven keeps insisting they go see the gems till he finally breaks down and says they can visit the beach to see if they’re back yet, but after dinner. They spend most of the day messing around, playing guitar (and ukulele), visiting the Frymans and even stopping by Funland with a few quarters for the Guys machine that Steven is so enamored of. Greg plays a quick game of skeeball and wins enough tickets to get a pet rock, one of those kitschy things from the 80’s, from the arcade. He’ll give it to Garnet to give to Steven. They end the day by eating a rather fantastic funnel cake and watching the sun start to set over the ocean. Once the cake is all gone and Steven is sufficiently covered in powdered sugar, he starts pulling Greg toward the beach, intent on making Greg keep his promise to look for the Crystal Gems.  

As they come onto the beach, past the chain link fence with its topper of barbed wire, around to the temple side, he begins to realize something has changed.   As they come up on the temple his eyes go wide. In front of the statue’s folded hands, right over where the cave is, _used_ to be, is a brand new house. Though maybe house is a little generous. It’s small, maybe enough to fit a few rooms, but nothing more. But there’s a little deck where Amethyst sits, balancing on the handrail. She’s the first one to spot them, calling out to the others. Garnet is up on the roof with a hammer…no, those are just her gauntlets tapping away at a nail. Pearl comes out through the front screen door, spots them and starts to wave animatedly. Steven has already left Greg’s side, scrambling up the new wood of the front steps and bouncing animatedly.

“What is this?! You’re building a house? Are you going to live here now?” Steven is a ball of rapid-fire questions, jumping up and down and squeaking all over himself in utter excitement. Pearl smiles widely at him, that strange smile she always gives Steven, part sadness, part grief, and part love. Greg can feel the blood draining from his face, the moisture leaving his mouth. This can’t be happening.

"Actually you’re going to live here with us!” Steven looks up at her with huge eyes like she’s just promised him the moon while Greg isn’t completely sure if he’s going to be able to keep down his funnel cake. This can’t be happening.

Garnet slides down from the roof on one hip and lands smoothly on the little deck, ruffling Steven’s hair as she passes him and coming to join Greg on the sand.          “We didn’t want you to find out like this,” she announces in that voice that’s sort of an apology but not really. He envies her emotionless tone, the way she’s holding herself so composed and calm. Steven has gone inside with Pearl and Amethyst without even a backward glance at the two figures on the beach.

“Find out what?” Greg asks, though they both already know ‘what’. Garnet looks back toward the new little bungalow, as if to make sure Steven is inside for this.

“Steven has Rose’s gem. He is not a human, and he needs to be with others who are like him.” She says it so frankly, like he’s just supposed to accept that they’re going to take his son, the very last person in his tiny family, away.

“You didn’t even ask me…” he says softly and he can hear his voice break on that last word. He can’t tear his eyes off of it, this little home they’ve built for Steven; for Steven and them, and not him.

“We’re asking now.”

“And if I say no?” he responds, tone taking on a bite of bitterness that’s not nearly enough to encompass how hurt he is. Garnet sighs and pulls her glasses off, folding them up in her hands. It’s easier to read her when he can see her eyes, and more unsettling when he realizes they’re misting over.

“The truth is, we need him just as much as he needs us. Without Rose we… We’re falling apart. Pearl and Amethyst fight over every little thing without Rose here to mediate. We lack cohesion, unity. We need him here. _I_ need him. I’m sorry,” Garnet says, like that will fix everything. The front door of the little shack swings open silently and Pearl walks down the stairs, eyes locked on the two of them. Great, just what he needs, another sniping match with _her._

“He’s my son…” his voice sounds weak in his own ears.

“He is a Crystal Gem,” Garnet says, slipping the glasses back on her face as Pearl approaches them. “Soon he will begin to manifest Rose’s powers. We need to be around when that happens. Please understand.”

“Understand what?! That you’re taking him away from me? That I’m never going to see my son again? You’re talking about taking away the last of my family, just plucking him out of my life!” Greg yells, rounding on the taller woman in front of him. Pearl appears at Garnet’s side, swimming into his field of vision as if out of nowhere.

“Greg, he’s not _human_ , it’s inappropriate for him to be living with you,” Pearl says, tone calm and rational for once instead of chiding. He almost prefers the chiding, it’s easier to combat. They’ve reached a weird sort of grudging respect since Steven was born, or at least he thought they had.

“He’s not a gem either! Not completely! He needs to eat and sleep and use the bathroom just like me. You don’t know how to care for a human child!” He can feel the tears brimming in his eyes but he can’t find it in himself to care anymore. They’re taking his son away; they’re ripping away the only person left who makes his life worth living. Pearl’s brows come together, her lips thinning out as she prepares to retort and he feels that old anger with her starting to rise in his chest, but Garnet stops them both.

“He’s right.”

“What?!” Pearl yells in that way that sets Greg’s teeth on edge, where she draws out the ‘aaah’ sound so she can pack every bit of her disdain and anger into that one shrill syllable.

“Greg is right. We cannot meet Steven’s needs as a human, just as Greg cannot meet Steven’s needs as a gem. He needs _both_ ,” Garnet says in that oh so practical voice. The sinking feeling in Greg’s gut finally starts to ease, unknotting and softening from its tight position. Pearl on the other hand, seems to have taken up right where he left off. She faces Garnet completely, giving him her back.

“What are you saying? That we should let him move in too? You know that’s not going to work, especially with all of our missions and the way he is about magic! And where is he supposed to stay? There’s only enough room here for _Steven!_ ” Somehow he doesn’t think she’s just speaking about the bungalow.

“We cannot ignore the part of Steven which is human. He needs to see his father, regularly. It’s not fair to anyone to say he can’t see his father anymore,” Garnet states. Pearl draws in a breath so ragged he wonders if it hurt her throat. Just as Pearl is about to start yelling again, Garnet speaks directly to Greg, looking over the other woman’s head to the shorter man. “But Steven needs to begin learning about his powers. If you were to live in the house you would get in the way. You will have access to Steven, but he needs to live with us.” The way she says it leaves little room to negotiate, and he knows he can’t fight them on this.

Greg looks up to the little house at the top of the sandy hill one more time and wipes roughly at his eyes. It’s bigger than his van by several hundred square feet, and a real home, with more than just him to look after Steven. And what Garnet says is true; Steven is not 100% a human being. He has no idea what the puberty process for a gem is, if there even is one. Steven just being a normal human child is almost too much for him to deal with alone without the added complication of budding powers and half alien physiology, at least here there would be three of them to look after his son, and him, sometimes, apparently. The gems know more about what Steven really is than he could ever learn in a century, let alone the few years before Steven begins to manifest his powers fully. It makes sense, and yet… He doesn’t want to lose his son to them, not completely, not the way they want. He just can’t.

“Fine,” he hears himself say, mouth working of its own volition. “He can live here.” He wipes his eyes again and turns back to Pearl and Garnet, who for once are both giving him their full attention. “But on a few conditions. You have to take down the fence around the beach. Steven needs to be able to come and go from here as he pleases. He needs to be able to make human friends and anytime he wants to come see me he’s got to be allowed to.” His eyes are starting to go watery again; he blinks rapidly to try and clear the tears before anyone notices. “And I want to see him at least three times a week.”

Garnet nods once while Pearl folds her arms over her chest sourly, glaring out to sea and walking away from the two of them. Fine. Let her pout, she’s not the one losing a son here.

“Alright. One of us will bring him around to your van, or you can come here,” she says then, loud enough for Pearl to hear, “you’re always welcome here Greg.” She starts to walk toward the house, but looks over her shoulder when Greg stays put. “Would you like to come in and see it?” she asks, tipping her head toward the shack. He can’t help it, the tears he’s been fighting against start to roll down his face into his beard. He remembers the pet rock in his pocket. It’s just a smooth river rock with googly eyes glued on, but he’d sort of promised Steven that the Gems would have something for him.

“Can you give this to Steven? I told him you’d give him a present since you went on a trip…” his voice come out flat and grey, but Garnet takes the rock with a small nod and leads the way.

Greg follows her up the hill to the small house where his son now lives, and he doesn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please review! 
> 
> I know there's a really short preview of the new episode where Greg is the one who builds the house, but I started this before that sneak peak had come out so... eh.
> 
> Tumblr: http://lillystonelove.tumblr.com/


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